


The Colors of My Heart

by orphan_account



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: AI Lance AU, Angst, Far Future, Lance (Voltron) Angst, M/M, Slow Burn, the angst is subtle at the beginning
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-02-03
Updated: 2018-02-03
Packaged: 2019-03-12 02:10:11
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 3
Words: 1,771
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13537464
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account
Summary: One day after the galra empire is defeated, the paladins go missing. The Lions and their paladins aren't seen for sixteen hundred years, when they are rediscovered by four new paladins, all in need of being taught. Luckily, one paladin, one princess, and one mysterious "Castle Intelligence" remains to teach them.But all is not as it seems - perhaps these three were not the only ones who survived the war.





	1. Introduction

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Just a short intro to all the new characters ^_^

Angie hated the idea of deep space exploration. Seriously, who wanted to stuck in space, billions of miles from any life? Not her. The only reason she found herself aboard the  _Keissler_ was her girlfriend, who was grinning at her from the pilot's seat.

"Can you believe this?! We're gonna be the first deep space explorers since the Aurora mission!" Afferlai couldn't contain her glee, and Angie couldn't blame her. Despite her hesitancy to join the NGG (New Galaxy Garrison), she had to admit that hundreds of years in cryogenic sleep next to her girlfriend was pretty romantic. With Afferlai by her side, maybe things wouldn't be so bad!

"Someone's excited," Jaike smirked as he took the co-pilot's seat. Afferlai punched him affectionately on the shoulder, and he responded with a faked yelp.

"Bicks! No roughhousing - at least wait until we've launched," Veritas scolded as they climbed aboard. "I don't want any trouble on this mission, understand?" despite their stern tone, Angie could see a twinkle in their eyes that gave away their affection for the small team.

"This is NGG Base to  _Keissler._ We are ready for take-off. Please get in position. We await your response - over."

"Let's get this show on the road, eh?" Angie smiled at Veritas's words, nodding before tapping the radio button on her console. With her crew beside her and her past behind her, this trip might not be so bad.


	2. In Orbit

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The Keissler mission has gone terribly wrong, and the four humans wake from cryo-sleep to a ravaged ship and no hope - until they see a nearby planet and decide being stranded on an oddly luscious planet is better than dying in the vacuum of space. Meanwhile, the Castle of Lions wakes up.

Angie couldn't remember her head hurting this much. She couldn't remember much of anything at the moment, to be entirely honest, but that didn't matter as much the fact that something warm and sticky was hitting her forehead every few seconds. She forced her eyes open, seeing fuzzy red dots on a white and grey background. She blinked a few times before reaching towards one of the dots. Her hand collided with it, and her fingers turned a cherry sort of color, and they felt gross and sticky. Angie shook her head, and more red dots appeared.

 _Blood,_ she realized slowly.  _It's blood._

But whose blood was it? She didn't see the others around, and-

The others. The others! Where were they? She gasped in panic, forcing the lead-like feeling from her limbs. She spun and kicked off the floor - or at least, the surface below her feet - and made her way to the door. She pulled up the Interaction Panel, blinking until her eyes were able to focus.

**CAUTION - CABIN BREACHED. SHIP IN LOCKDOWN MODE.**

Fuck. Fuck, fuck  _fuck._ How had the cabin been breached?! Angie felt tears forming in her eyes.  _This is how I'm going to die,_ she thought, swallowing. She really shouldn't have come to space, she was right the whole time! It hadn't been paranoia, and now she was going to die, helpless on a doomed  _Keissler,_ no crew in sight.

There it was again, thinking of her crew. She hoped they had gotten out safe. That was probably caused the cabin breach, now that she thought about it. If they hadn't used the airlock designed for planetary exploration, then they would've used the ZSG Emergency Exit, which would not have preserved cabin pressure the way the airlock would. She felt briefly offended that they hadn't brought her with them, but with all the blood in the air around her, they probably would've thought she was dead. In fact, it was a miracle that she wasn't dead. Unfortunately, it wouldn't be a long-lasting or shareable miracle. She would have to keep it to herself, since she had nobody else to tell.

Angie glanced at the Interaction Panel.  **CAUTION - CABIN BREACHED. SHIP IN LOCKDOWN MODE.** What was wrong here? Something was definitely off, though she couldn't tell what. If her crew were here -

No, not again with her crew. They were gone. Not their fault. So what was the problem? What was going on? She read the seven words again and again, wondering if she was truly missing something or if she was just going insane. "Caution. Cabin breached. Ship in lockdown mode," Angie said to herself. "Ship in lockdown mode," she said again, eyebrows crinkling in frustration. Her eyes widened. "Ship in lockdown mode!" she yelled, gasping. "It doesn't lock down when..." she didn't need to finish her sentence. Instead, she pulled up the ship camera feeds on the Interaction Panel. Sure enough, the ZSG door remained in place. She watched it for a few seconds, just to make sure her mind wasn't tricking her.

"They're here too," she whispered, smiling weakly. Her heart pounded inside her chest - and then she began to work.

* * *

 

**Initiate maintenance > lights (manual reboot)**

**Initiate maintenance > life support (manual reboot)**

**Initiate maintenance > interface revivals (manual reboot)**

**Initiate maintenance > identity scanner (automatic reboot)**

**Initiate maintenance > castle-wide reboot (automatic reboot)**

_< MAINTENANCE TASKS COMPLETE>_

**Initiate maintenance > scan for anomalies > range = MjAwLDAwMCBmdWNraW5nIG1pbGVzIGFib3ZlIHBsYW5ldHNpZGU=**

_< MAINTENANCE TASK COMPLETE > RESULTS = FOUR LIFEFORMS IN ORBIT>_

_**Initiate maintenance > begin broadcast** _

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Now things are getting interesting!! Stick around to see what happens next. ;)


	3. Welcome Aboard

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Bold text is always Cyan, unless I say it's not

It took Angie about thirty seconds to pull the door menus up - she knew it would take longer to override the emergency locks, but she knew the NGG system like nobody else. The only problem would be getting everyone off the ship, but... well, she would cross that bridge when she got to it. For the meantime, she decided to work on opening the doors. She pulled down the digital keyboard, typing away furiously, ignoring the occasional warning pop-up, closing them if possible. Her typing quickened as she finished, and despite the blood loss and dreariness, she grinned and sped up even more. She raised her finger to hit the final enter, and then-

**< Incoming Broadcast > Please gather all four crew members for the broadcast>**

Angie blinked. She swallowed at the odd pop-up message that blocked her progress. Before she could open the doors, the message blinked away and the door opened. Then the message flicked back up, with a slight change.

**< Incoming Broadcast > Please gather all four crew members for the broadcast. It should be easier now>**

Angie gulped. What was this? It couldn't be the NGG, they were too far out for that. Was it a retrieval ship of some sort? How had it found them? Who was on it? She shook her head as if to shake away the questions, accidentally flicking more blood into the air. She began to propel herself down the hallways, looking for her crew. Luckily, she didn't have to look far, as Veritas and Jaike were floating silently down the hallway. Their eyes bugged a little when they saw her, but neither of them said anything until she got within arm's reach.

"You're alive," Veritas whispered, wrapping her in a big hug. When they pulled away, a smile was stretched across their face. "You were the one to open the doors, weren't you?" Angie sucked in a breath awkwardly.

"Well, no," she admitted, "but I was about to! I just... you guys need to see this. First, though, we find Afferlai."

"No need," Afferlai slammed her hands down on Angie's shoulders, sending her to the ship's floor. Angie yelped, the turned around and hugged her.

"Asshole," she whispered. Afferlai smiled.

"I know. Now, what were you saying we should see?"

* * *

 

Afferlai was the second one to view the message. "Broadcast?" she guffawed, rubbing her chin. "Who the hell would want to broadcast to us? We're out in the middle of nowhere."

"Yeah, this is weird," Jaike said. "Veritas, have you seen this?"

"Angie probably pranked us," Veritas reasoned, looking at Angie solemnly. "I don't mean to be rude, but this is impossible. Like Affi said, we're too far out for a broadcast from Earth," Angie stuck her bottom lip out and spun so that she was facing away from

**< Are you guys going to answer the broadcast already, or are you just going to keep bickering forever?>**

Veritas blinked at the screen. "Uh, Angie?" 

"What is it," Angie spun back around, gasping at the changed message. "I did not do that!" she shrieked. 

"Maybe it's a space ghost," Jaike joked. 

**< I can assure you that space ghosts are not nearly as cool as I am>**

Veritas pointed at the new message, turning to Angie with their mouth open wide.

**< Enough messing around, though. Do you accept the broadcast?>**

"Yes!" Afferlai said as soon as the message changed. The screen flickered off, staying blank for a moment before a blue circle hologram appeared.

**"Hello. I am Cyan, Castle Intelligence. I was awakened by an anomaly in the nearby solar system: you. You are currently in orbit of the planet Arus,"** the hologram seemed to bubble as it spoke.  **"I really didn't mean to disturb you, but you would eventually die in orbit, due to your cryopod failures."**

"Uh, they're called cryo-capsules," Jaike corrected. The hologram - Cyan - paused.

**"Sure. Cryo-capsules,"** despite being some sort of computer system, Angie could sense the sarcastic annoyance in its voice. She made a mental note to question it a million times as soon as she figured out what the hell was going on.  **"Anyway, I'm requesting to guide your ship down to the Castle. You can remain in orbit if you'd like, but it seems illogical. Once you get to Castle, I can see about repairing your ship, or even replacing it,"** Cyan paused again.

 "So, you have a castle?" Jaike asked, leaning forward skeptically. He yelped as he started to spin downwards, and Cyan's hologram seemed to ripple, accompanied by.... a laugh. It was laughing.

**"Yes, and I'm part of it. You could say I'm the heart of the castle,"** it spoke almost teasingly, like there was some sort of joke they weren't getting. Afferlai noticed it, made a mental note of it, and ignored it, focusing instead on the fact that this AI seemed to have emotions. How long had they been asleep? Certainly longer than they were supposed to be, unless science had progressed extremely fast.

Afferlai took a deep breath, casting aside all of the thoughts and assumptions she'd made about Cyan. Whatever was going on, it was clearly above anything they'd seen before, and definitely something wonderful and beautiful. She was going to understand it, and for the moment, that was all she knew. She held the air in her lungs for a moment, eyes closed as she made a decision. She was by no means the leader of the team, but if it was for their safety, she would make any choice necessary. So she said six words. Six simple words that would appear to change her life, but this destiny was set the moment she first boarded the  _Keissler._

"How soon will we be down?"


End file.
